For decades, the instrumental band Tortoise was the face of the genre known as “post rock.” The catch-all term emerged in the late 1990s to describe music that existed in the gaps between rock and jazz and between compositional music and straightforward improvisation.
But to Tortoise co-founder John Herndon, the term “post rock” — despite his band birthing the category — never made a lot of sense.
“When I first heard it, my kneejerk reaction was, ‘I never got rid of my AC/DC records, I don’t know what this means.’ I didn’t throw my Ramones records away. I still love Chuck Berry,” he said.
His befuddlement reflects the impossible task of trying to define Tortoise, a quintet rooted in Chicago that features some of the city’s most adventuresome players — percussionists Herndon and Dan Bitney, drummer John McEntire, guitarist Jeff Parker and bassist Doug McCombs. The band headlines the Auditorium Theatre Tuesday and will appear with the Chicago Philharmonic (WBEZ is co-presenting the show with the Auditorium).
Despite dominating Chicago’s homegrown independent music scene in its first two decades, the band, like its namesake, is becoming more deliberate in its output. Three of the five band members have relocated from Chicago to the west coast and all are busy in other musical projects including Isotope 217, Chicago Underground, Brokeback and Eleventh Dream Day. The band’s eighth album “Touch” (International Anthem/Nonesuch), released this month, is the first Tortoise release in nine years.
For those unaccustomed to their music, “Touch” offers a good entry point. Opposed to the chilled-out soundscape music of former records, the melodies of these new songs sit at the forefront. “Vexations,” the album opener, is the first fully rock moment — driven by guitar-drum swagger, it builds into a fully synthesized groove. Programmed beats interplay on “Oganesson” until half-way when Parker interjects by layering in jazz chords. Other hybrid songs sync digital tools with human instruments, and on “Layered Presences,” even some field recordings. The most cinematic song is album ender “Night Gang,” which pulls in elements of spaghetti western soundtracks and cresting synthesizers.
Herndon said the process for building the songs began in 2021. The band had to sync schedules every few months for week-long recording sessions in home cities for different band members — Portland, Los Angeles, Chicago. Each member of Tortoise would bring in snippets of ideas and “we’d start pecking away at it,” Herndon said.
“Often, I don’t know what’s going to happen with something. Nobody comes in with something so sketched up or so detailed that they have a final idea of what something is going to be. It’s taking this material and pushing it around and discovering through trial and error the process of figuring out what it is,” he said. The process involves “putting layers on and scraping layers off until you come with something that people are like ‘yeah.’”
Working without a deadline gave the band freedom to experiment, but eventually the principals at International Anthem informed them the record needed to be in hand at a certain date. That forced the sessions to snap into place.
“Touch” arrives nearly 30 years after the band’s landmark second album, “Millions Now Living Will Never Die” (Thrill Jockey), that opens with “Djed,” a 21-minute song that combines hip-hop and rock elements so seamlessly, it surpasses the boundaries of each. In those early days, Tortoise launched the so-called post-rock genre by intertwining the cut-and-paste aesthetic from early hip-hop, with jazz improvisation, and rock guitars.
Herndon, who now lives in Los Angeles, remembers “there was a change in the air” during his time in Chicago. Electronic music was cross pollinating with indie rock, and hip-hop was a source for experimentation with new production techniques. The advent of home studio software such as Pro Tools also encouraged people to record music in their bedrooms where they could push their experimental impulses without a cost burden. Clubs and alternative venues invited rock musicians to DJ, which further increased the crossover.
“People were experimenting with different techniques of recording and dealing with sound. And even before then in Chicago, a lot of people from different scenes were collaborating with each other. A lot of rock musicians heard a lot of improvised music because it was around and vice versa. People started playing with each other,” he said.
“When Tortoise is operating best, we can set a mood and fill a space with a unique sound that is not really jazz, not really rock, not really electronic. But if people approach it with an open mind and let it be what it is, then it’s the best,” band co-founder John Herndon said.
Courtesy of Yusuke Nagata
Tortoise benefited from the collaborative vibe in the city at the time. All five members came from disparate corners of the music world, having served in bands as different as Eleventh Dream Day, Slint, and the Poster Children.
“People were experimenting with these new ways to approach the music,” he said. “I think if there is a definition to post rock, I think that’s kind of it. Rather than being about a specific sound, it’s more of a space to present ideas.”
As Tortoise’s popularity grew, the band began accepting invitations to play jam band festivals in the U.S. and Europe.
“We opened up for some bigger jam bands at some point and we got booed a few times on the stage playing in front of that crowd. I don’t know if we are a ‘make people dance’ band, which it seems like a lot of bands in that scene wanted to do, which was to have these extended improvised dance spaces. We weren’t really doing that,” he said.
As always, Tortoise has survived by doing its own thing.
“Tortoise falls between the cracks between a lot of stuff,” Herndon said. “When Tortoise is operating best, we can set a mood and fill a space with a unique sound that is not really jazz, not really rock, not really electronic. But if people approach it with an open mind and let it be what it is, then it’s the best.”